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The Legacy of the Bones
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Wikipedia article
'The Legacy of the Bones' is a 2019 Spanish supernatural crime-thriller film directed by Fernando Gonzlez Molina. The film is the second in the Baztn Trilogy and is an adaptation based on the eponymous novel by Dolores Redondo. It is a sequel to the 2017 thriller film 'The Invisible Guardian' and is followed by 'Offering to the Storm'.
Plot
Amaia Salazar (Marta Etura) returns to the Baztn valley to investigate the suicides that have a mysterious and jarring pattern. She believes that the suicide cases are linked to a murder case which she solved in Northern Spain a year before. Salazar, who has since given birth to a baby boy, returns as a detective from The Invisible Guardian and leads the investigation. She also has to confront the challenges of her mentally ill and disturbed mother Rosario (Miren Gaztanaga).
At the City Court, Amaia Salazar and her team await the trial of Jason Medina, accused of rape, mutilation and killing of his stepdaughter Johana Mrquez. Just before the trial can commence, Medina is found in the court's bathroom dead after committing suicide by cutting open his veins, leaving a little note in a pocket of his jeans with just one word written: "Tarttalo".
The event causes Amaia's water to break and she gives birth a son; Ibai in the hospital. The couple, Amaia and her American husband, James celebrate the birth of their first child. Reinstated to the active service four months later, Amaia is called by her superior to lead two different cases: Monseor Landero and Padre Sarasola requested Amaia specifically to investigate with secrecy the profanation of a little church where a baby's amputated arm was found in the altar. A man incarcerated in Logroo (autonomous community of La Rioja's capital) by his wife's killing urges for Amaia Salazar with a message, revealing where his wife's corpse lies. He commits suicide after giving a note to a prison guard, where only 'Tarttalo' is written. Amaia links the "Tarttalo" message to the pile of bones which her team had found the year before. She finds that "Tarttalo" refers to an old Middle Age legend by the Spanish Inquisition. Due to its pagan beliefs and rites, Tarttalo is the name of an ancient myth (a giant who eats Christians, specifically Christian babies to stop them from growing up religious),
in the meantime, Amaia and her family move to Elizondo after her Aunt Engrasi mentions the abandoned house that her grandmother left behind. Amaia meets the groundskeeper, but finds it odd when he does not greet her back after waving at him. Engrasi mentions that he does not speak much and is estranged by his son.
Amaia video calls her former mentor and FBI's agent Aloisius Dupree, asking for help, at the same time Aunt Engrasi uses tarot to predict what could happen, warning Amaia to be careful because there's evil around her. Judge Javier Markina follows with the investigation with great attention. Amaia constant calls to work cause a rift in her relationship with James, despite him moving to Elizondo in hopes to grow the family. However, the case makes a dramatic twist by double-entry: the baby with an amputated arm shares Amaia's DNA and is revealed to be Amaia's twin sister she never knew existed.
Amaia dreams of her child self and her twin sister in the woods and we see a flashback to when Rosario attempts to kill her twin babies, it is only when Amaia's father intervenes, Amaia is saved, but it is too late for the other twin.
Salazar finds the courage to visit her mother to confront her about this attack but is instead called in, after it is reported that Rosario attacked a nurse with a scalpel. A blood-written message of "Tarttalo" is found under the bed, causing the reappearance of the enigmatic psychiatrist Padre Saralosa. Padre, interested in Rosario tries to convince Amaia to move Rosario to Saralosa's hospital university he leads.
Forced to look into her family past, Amaia discovers the relation between her mother and a sect dedicated to a pagan cult that included human sacrifices, but that all the crimes are connected with her.
Amaia asks for the psychiatric consultations, which were filmed, between the doctor and her mother, She discovers that the doctor is in fact, groundskeeper's estranged son, involved in pagan acts. She also then realises that her mother intends to kill her son. She immediately calls Rosauro to save Ibai but Elizondo is flooded and Rosauro becomes too late in saving Ibai. Rosauro finds an unconscious Engrasi and the baby gone. Jonan and Amaia drive on to find Rosario and Doctor Berasategui ready to sacrifice the baby. Amaia shoots to stop the sacrifice. Rosario then realises that the baby is a boy and not a girl as intended. She says to Amaia that she was successful in sacrificing her sister but not done with Amaia. She then disappears.
Amaia puts her sisters bones to rest in her back yard of the large house, but her mother is still nowhere to be found.
Cast
Production
The film is a Nostromo Pictures and Mantecadas Salazar AIE production, produced in association with Atresmedia Cine, Nadcon Film, ZDF and ARTE. It had the participation of Atresmedia and Cosmopolitan TV.
Release
'The Legacy of the Bones' premiered at the 52nd Sitges Film Festival on 10 October 2019. Distributed by DeAPlaneta, it was theatrically released in Spain on 5 December 2019. The film streaming was made available via Netflix on 17 April 2020. Netflix unveiled the official trailer of the film on 12 April 2020 and the film release was opened to mixed reviews from critics.
Sequel
The sequel to this film titled 'Offering to the Storm' was planned to be released on 27 March 2020, but the release was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. It is the last film in the Baztn Trilogy and was released on 24 July 2020 on Netflix.
See also
* List of Spanish films of 2019
References
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